Turning The Tables
by Noel Edge
Summary: Jade didn't feel the need to fill the silence. Having everyone's eyes on her, especially Beck's, for going to talk to the new guy was enough. She was feeling infinitely content and definitely smug. /or Beck and Jade break up for real. Eventual Bade.


**This is something I started writing awhile ago and I have no idea if I like it or not. I decided to post it anyway… so here you go.**

**Disclaimer - I don't own Victorious. The man who shaped my childhood with all his awesome TV shows, a.k.a. Dan Schneider, does.  
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><p>The new kid was definitely good-looking. It didn't make sense why he wasn't very social. He had already been at Hollywood Arts for three days and he still hadn't tried to make friends. At least not in any way Jade West could see. He would strut around the school hallways alone and at lunch he always found a shady spot under a tree, a ways away from the Asphalt Café, and ate alone. Jade had heard his name whispered around school. Mostly girls who were daring their friends to ask him out, but so far no girl had had the guts to confront him. Well, that was going to change.<p>

When the bell rang for lunch, Jade rose from her seat in class with poise and put the strap of her bag over her shoulder. Before she could take a step toward the door, sugary-sweet little Cat came prancing up to her with a huge grin on her face.

"Hi, Jade!" Her bubbly voice made Jade cringe. Normally it was tolerable, but Jade hadn't been in a good mood as of late for obvious reasons. "Are you gonna eat with us at lunch today?"

Her tone was hopeful and it almost made Jade feel bad. Almost. She had been asking Jade that same question every day before lunch for the last three days, as if hoping she was going to change her mind. Cat seemed genuinely bothered that just because Jade and Beck had broken up, Jade seemed to be separating herself from their group of friends. But really, who did Jade have to stay for? So, okay, Andre wasn't horrible. And Robbie was mostly bearable except for that damn puppet. Cat had always been friendly toward Jade, but who wasn't she friendly toward?

Jade was fine with sitting at a table by herself. She didn't feel lonesome and she didn't care if anyone thought she looked like a loner. No one had the balls to say something to her about it anyway.

Besides, sitting at the table with the others like everything was peachy keen would just be weird all around. Being next to Beck was awkward. She didn't know what she would do if their eyes met across the table. She had never felt uncomfortable around him until this breakup. It felt a lot more real than any other time. She missed him, but she'd be damned if she would willingly subject herself to sitting across a table from him and having to see Tori switch between sympathetic looks directed toward her and ogling Beck when she thought Jade wasn't looking.

"No." Jade drawled carelessly and turned to leave.

Cat caught her wrist.

"Oh, come on, Jade." She said exuberantly. "We can stills be friends! It's not fun to sit by yourself! Beck won't mind!"

Jade grit her teeth to hold back her annoyance. She pulled her arm free and turned to walk away.

"I won't mind, you know." She heard him say.

Jade turned back and saw Beck had stepped up next to Cat. He looked impassive as always, but somehow an undertone of kindness was shining through. Jade said nothing. She tried not to look into his brown eyes. Fuck him. She didn't need him to act like he was doing her a favor. She didn't need him or any of her so-called "friends." She turned back around and walked out the door.

She knew exactly where she was going as she made it into the main hallway and then stalked straight through the front doors to the school. It was bright outside, a huge contrast to Jade's mood. She wanted to punch something. She tried to breath slow and smooth. She couldn't look like a crazy mess when she went to talk to the new kid. Colby. Colby was his name. She paused where the canopy ended that shielded the café from the sunshine.

There he was, sitting under the same tree he had been for the past few days. All alone. Well, at least they had that in common. Being alone. And come to think of it, they were both alone voluntarily. I mean, this Colby kid was not hurting in the looks department. He could easily make friends here whether he had a pleasant personality or not. Superficial friends, but friends all the same. Jade found herself wondering what his story was which was strange because she didn't often care about why people did the things they did. It's not that she couldn't take interest in other people, she just chose not to.

Making up her mind, she walked over to the Grub Truck to get herself a salad ignoring Beck, Cat, and Tori as they walked past to sit down together. She could feel Beck's eyes on her, but she didn't turn around. She didn't want to see his look of pity. If he cared so much about her feelings and it killed him so much to see her alone, then why did he break up with her in the first place? Okay, so maybe she had pushed him a bit the other day, but it hadn't been any worse than before.

Jade paid for her lunch and then marched across the café, walking across the parking lot toward Colby's tree. She could have sworn she felt all eyes at her back as she approached the new boy and sat down with an air of complete composure. She crossed her legs and put her salad down in front of her. Colby rose his head to look at her and the sunlight hit his bright blue eyes in a way that Jade could have sworn almost blinded her. He didn't look surprised to see her sitting with him per se, but he did lift a blonde eyebrow at her as though asking who she was without words.

"Hello…" He said slowly and his voice was kind of nice.

Jade nodded at him, not even bothering to introduce herself. She opened her salad and started poking it with her fork.

"I'm Colby." He told her.

Jade looked up with a self-assured expression. She almost looked bored by his words.

"I know." She said. "You're kind of famous around here."

Both of his eyebrows rose now. He smiled and his teeth were extremely white and straight. Jade found herself wondering why the fuck this guy had to look like he just climbed out of a goddamn Abercrombie & Fitch catalog. Tousled blonde hair all that jazz. He wasn't really her type, but she would have to be blind not to realize he was handsome, jock-ish pretty boy or not. He was definitely built stronger and wider than Beck (who was almost tiny in comparison). She could see the muscles in his arms and she was positive those muscles extended to under his shirt. She rolled her eyes at her inner monologue. Whatever, she didn't care about this guy. She loved Beck.

"I haven't even really talked to anyone…" He said slowly and he laughed a little.

Jade shrugged.

"Yeah, well, your name is on the lips of every girl in the school, I'm afraid." She said. "Most chicks that go here are highly superficial. They all have bets on who's going to ask you out first."

He looked as if he wasn't sure how to respond to that so he settled for a nervous laugh and took a bite of his sandwich. Jade didn't feel the need to fill the silence. Having everyone's eyes on her (and Beck's) for going to talk to the new guy when no one else had, was enough. She was feeling infinitely content and definitely smug. She smirked inwardly.

"So… you didn't tell me your name…" He ventured.

"Jade." She replied simply.

"Jade." He repeated. "You look like a Jade."

Jade had nothing to say to that so she continued to eat.

"You're really gorgeous, you know." He told her.

That made Jade lift her head up to look at him. She rose an eyebrow at him this time. She wasn't sure if she should be flattered about this compliment that came out of nowhere or if she should punch him right in the nose for saying something so forward so quickly. Then again… she could use this to her advantage, right? Hadn't that been her plan from the second she had made her way over to the new boy?

She chose to say nothing again, poking another piece of lettuce into her mouth.

"You don't really talk much, do you?" He asked.

Jade shrugged. She was waiting for him to say something interesting.

"So…" He tried once more. "Why have you been eating alone these past couple days?"

Jade swallowed before answering.

"How do you know I've been eating alone?" She asked.

"I've seen you." He replied. "Not in a creepy stalker kind of way, I swear. I can just see the whole café from here and you're always sitting at the table closest to my view. You're always turned away from me, but it's kind of hard not to recognize you with those bright streaks in your hair."

Jade scowled a little and pulled at her blue streaks absently.

"Well, I should be asking you the same question, you know." She said.

He shrugged.

"There's not much to tell." He insisted. "I've been eating alone 'cause I don't know anyone. Simple as that."

Jade crossed her arms.

"Well, that's stupid." She said bluntly. "Everyone has been dying to meet you these past couple days, but they're scared because you're being such a loner. They think you don't want to talk to anyone."

Colby snorted.

"Now THAT'S stupid." He insisted. "I mean, if people want to talk to me, they should just come up and say hi. I mean, I'm the new kid, right? It's common courtesy."

Jade shrugged, but inside she wondered what the hell was wrong with this kid.

"Good looks hinder some people." She said in a disgusted tone.

Colby smirked.

"Do you think I'm good-looking?" He asked.

Jade cringed at him.

"Don't make me puke." She told him in a very put off way.

He started laughing then.

"Well, you're a ball of sunshine, aren't you?" He teased.

"I'm just not desperate like the other girls at this school." She said.

He regarded her curiously for a moment. Jade's eyes were down on her salad once more, but she could feel Colby studying her.

"So… do you have a boyfriend?" He asked.

Stupid question. Jade knew he had asked this on purpose. He obviously knew she didn't if he had seen her eating alone for the past three days.

"I did." She said simply, shrugging.

"The tall one with the long hair." Colby said knowingly. "I saw you two together on my first day."

Jade looked up again, perfect eyebrow raising once more.

"Oh, did you?" She asked. "And what did you see?"

Colby shrugged innocently.

"I don't know." He said. "The two of you were obviously together. Anyone could see that. I saw you making out at his locker before school ended. You guys seemed pretty wrapped up in each other."

Jade's face hardened angrily. She hated Beck right now. How could he fucking do this to her? But she had promised herself… she wasn't going to fall apart. She didn't want to give Beck or anyone else the satisfaction. She wasn't going to fall apart like last time. She was going to be strong. And in fact, she was proud of herself. She had kept it together for three days. She was on a roll so far.

"Yeah, well…" Jade mumbled. "It's over."

She ate another bite purposefully, so she didn't have to answer his next question right away.

"What happened?" Colby asked her.

She knew he would ask. He came off as the kind of guy who asked a lot of questions right from the start. Jade chewed slowly and took forever to swallow. She really didn't want to have this conversation.

"Nothing." She said. "Just… nothing."

Colby looked at her for a moment, studying her again and she looked away uncomfortably.

"Well, it had to be SOMETHING." He said. "I mean, a guy doesn't go from kissing his girlfriend in public like he doesn't care who sees, to just dropping her for no reason overnight."

Jade squirmed a little bit and shrugged, making a face. Why the fuck was she even sitting here with this dude? She knew she would have to talk with him. And now look what was happening. He was already asking about her personal life.

"Did he cheat on you or something?" Colby asked.

Jade's head flew up in shock. She never imagined someone could ask something like that about Beck, but then again this guy was new. He knew nothing about Beck. And as angry as she was at Beck, she never wanted anyone to get the wrong impression of him. Beck was a good guy. He always had been. He was always there for his friends and he had always been there for Jade. The one person she could really rely on.

"No." Jade said. "He didn't cheat on me."

"How do you know?" Colby pressed.

Jade ground her teeth in an irritated way.

"I just know, okay?" Her tone sounded a little angry and she wondered what Colby was thinking when he heard it. "He's not that type of guy. Now, just drop it. I don't want to talk about this."

"You mean, him." Colby said.

"Yes." Jade said through clenched teeth. "That's what I mean. HIM. I don't want to talk about _him_. Let's just talk about something else."

Colby nodded and then let a smile show that looked like bottled sunshine. Fuck, he just appeared to be so perfect. Perfection had never been something that Jade liked. In fact, she found perfection in flaws. And how had this kid gotten into Hollywood Arts anyway? He looked like he should be going to a normal, public high school and playing football or something. Definitely not an Artsy, Bohemian school like theirs, that was for sure.

"Sorry." He said. "We can talk about whatever you want. I won't mention the boyfriend again."

"Ex." Jade said quickly.

"Right." Colby nodded. "Ex-boyfriend."

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><p><strong>So that's it for now. Obviously it's meant to be a multi-chapter, but continuing the story depends on if anyone likes it or reviews. Reviews are wholeheartedly appreciated always and forever.<strong>


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